Gobiocypris rarus as a Chinese Native Model Organism: History and Current Situation

Rare minnow, Gobiocypris rarus is a small cyprinid fish endemic to China. From the beginning of 1990,researchers in the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, did a series of studies on this fish for the purpose of establishment of a new laboratory animal and to promote its application in various research fields.With the establishment of rules and regulations on environmental management of chemicals in China, rare minnow has gradually become the most important test fish species. In this paper, biological characteristics of this fish were reviewed, including systematic position, geographical distribution, habitat, morphological characteristics, ontogenesis, growth, reproduction, genetic features, and adaptability to environment. The merits of rare minnow as model organism were summarized. In addition, a brief introduction on standardization of experimental rare minnow was given. Along with the advance of works on laboratory animal standardization and genome sequencing, rare minnow will be more widely used as a representative model organism with Chinese characteristics.